Sony’s Vaio X Series is the company’s new slimmie that makes the Macbook Air look fat by comparison, but does it pack enough inside its lithe case to compete with the big boys? Read our Sony Vaio X Series review now to find out.

Now this laptop is slim. Damn slim. It needs to run around in the shower to get wet, that kind of slim. It measures just 13.9mm fat, which is thinner than the Macbook Air (although the Air does get down to just 4mm at one point, but that doesn’t accurately represent the bulk of carrying it). And as such, the Sony Vaio X Series feels a little flimsy, more like a delicate ornament than a warhorse that’ll see you through all kinds of scrapes.

Of course this also means the Sony’s Vaio X Series is crazily light – just 780g to be precise. Sling it in a laptop bag and you’ll forget it’s there, it’s that light. And if you’ve been lugging round a 13-inch Macbook previously, it feels like someone’s emptied your bag of a slab of concrete.

Seriously, words fail us just how diminutive the proportions are on this thing. Despite this, the Sony Vaio X Series comes with Windows 7, a choice of either 128 or 256GB flash memory, and two USB ports (that’s one more than the Air). The keyboard is nicely spaced out, with ample room between each key to minimize mis-hits. Plus there’s a proper mouse trackpad with gesture controls, unlike the nipple on the even smaller P Series. The trackpad is a little small, and pinching to zoom on pictures only worked about once in every three times, but we’d still much rather it than the awful effort on the Vaio P.

At 11.1-inches, the screen is an inch smaller than the Air’s, but it’s bright and colours are vivid. A handy Wireless switch lets you turn off Wi-Fi and preserve battery without having to go into an on-screen menu. And the Atom processor on the Vaio X Series is fine for basic applications, but don’t expect it to run Fallout 3.

One of the compromises of the slimness is there’s no CD drive, although built-in 3G mobile broadband will get you online wherever you are. And we’d advise the matte black finish over the glossy one, the latter attracting fingerprints like dogs to a butcher’s window. As for the champagne gold finish? Euch.

This being Sony, the Vaio X Series does cost a bomb. But in terms of sexiness and mobility, it’s unbeatable.

um.. this review kinda sucks. not to mention, the screen is not 10.1 inches as stated. it’s 11.1

http://www.electricpig.co.uk Joe Minihane

Hi Nicholas

Cheers for your comment. Apologies for the typo on the screen size, this has been fixed. Our reviewer did spend a long time with the Vaio X, so sorry to here you’re not happy with the review. We always ensure to pay plenty of attention to detail when testing products here at Electricpig.

Thanks

Joe

http://www.gravatar.com James Holland

Hey Nicholas. Let us know what you didn’t like about the review, and we’ll try to build more of the stuff you find useful into them from now on. Apologies for the typo, but if it’s a wider issue then tell us – If we don’t know what you didn’t like, we can’t fix it!

anonymous

Kinda small review and inaccurate too. VAIO X has 64GB SSD version too and the performance really sucks. This is the only site which says that the keyboard is nice which actually is pathetic. Keys are meant for the babies! Even a normal guy like me won’t be able to type nicely on it. Chepo 200 pound netbooks come with far better keyboards than this. This is according to this review

Thanks for your comments. Our reviews are around the 400 word mark and kept short and digestible so people get an idea of what it;s like living with the device. We try not get hung up on specs as we know there are other places you can go to dive into that kind of thing if you’re really looking to get drill down info.

Our reviewer spent a substantial period of time with the product and found it worked well for him. That said, tell us what you want from reviews here at EP and we’ll look into including new ideas.

Thanks

Joe

Michael Stanford

Thanks for your comments. I found the keyboard far more usable than most small laptops, especially considering the X Series’ size and weight. The specs are never going to blow you away on something with these dimensions, but you know that when you get it. It’s made to do the basics. And as a small laptop that covers those, I think it’s great, if too expensive.